Royalties from VG WORT for publishing houses in Switzerland

With the new distribution plan of December 2021, VG WORT has also amended the royalties for book publishers and the reporting system. Publishing houses must now declare the rights granted to them by authors (in particular, the rights of reproduction and distribution). However, consent to the publishing houses’ share – which was required from authors during the transitional phase of recent years – will no longer be necessary in future. The amount of royalties paid to publishing houses is now capped by law in Germany. A minimum quota of two-thirds for authors applies.
In early April 2022, ProLitteris reached an agreement with VG WORT on how the statutory royalties from VG WORT are to be distributed in Switzerland. This affects rights holders who are members of ProLitteris but not of VG WORT. Based on the discussions held, ProLitteris assumes the following for Swiss publishing houses:
– That the royalties paid to Swiss and German publishing houses are, on the whole, equivalent, even if the Swiss publishing houses do not have a representation agreement with VG WORT. For ProLitteris, the decisive factor is not primarily VG WORT’s distribution plan, but ProLitteris’s distribution regulations.
– That the two collective management organisations will increasingly set up direct reporting by Swiss publishing houses to VG WORT. Publishing houses who have a management agreement with ProLitteris will be able to register with VG WORT using their ProLitteris member ID and participate in the distribution there. Payments will then continue to be processed via ProLitteris. A rights management agreement and membership of VG WORT are not necessary.
ProLitteris considers it advantageous in this situation for publishing houses to continue to receive all royalties from ProLitteris, including VG WORT’s royalties for the use of works in Germany. Swiss publishing houses receive comprehensive royalties from ProLitteris, both from Switzerland and from abroad, and receive these payments from a single source.
Should a publishing house in Switzerland instead opt for a rights management agreement with VG WORT as well, the publishing house would have to exclude all foreign territories from the transfer of rights in the new management agreement with ProLitteris. The migration of all rights holders from ProLitteris to the new ProLitteris management agreement will take place in the course of 2022, irrespective of the issue of publishing house participation. ProLitteris will not allow any exceptions to rights and royalties solely for Germany.
Team Works (works@prolitteris.ch) is responsible for the distribution of statutory royalties from Switzerland and abroad and is happy to provide further information.